Artists Should Stay Away From The Fan Webcomic Called "Tails Gets Trolled" And It's Equivalents - The Labor You Will Put In Will Be Misused And Not Appreciated
I know I usually frown upon direct call outs against individuals if they are not companies or high profile- I leave the names out and make other do the same, but this specific event was so egregious that I have given it some thought- I have decided that even tho there are multiple people involved in this, they have been all contributing to the same problem and overall creating a toxic and harmful work environment for people working for them voluntarily. I can crop their names out, just leave what I have been provided of them, and it won't change the fact that this "Tails Gets Trolled" comic project has being run by entitled people that do not value what others provide to them and there has to be some sort of warning for artists out there to not join; since all these people are linked to the project and who exactly they are is not all that important. All you need to know is that they are responsible with a very mismanaged work that actively degrades the very people that work hard to make it happen.
Okay- Now here is where I, as the mod of this community, is positioned in this situation; I have absolutely have no connections to this said webcomic, and to be honest, didn't even heard of them until a while ago. Someone I was in communications with passingly told me that they joined the project as one of the volunteer artists to hoping to gain some experience of continuously working on a project and see how it was done up close that was it for me. I will be referring to them as "The True OP" ( or "T.O"p or "True", which always will be shown as the color blue in screenshots). A few weeks ago from now on, True OP decided to blow the lit off on how badly they have been treated during their time there, and specifically asked me to share the proofs of it from what little they have managed to record, since the behavior was so unexpected and unnecessary for them.
At first, I was hesitant, and to be honest, was expecting a nothing burger from the situation and than they started recalling events that sounded down right psychotic, and than they have started to provide proof of some of the said events happening with screenshots and videos.
What FINALLY made me decide that I have to make this matter public was this one, which was the last exchange between one of the staff members and True:
More context for this coming in the following recounts of what have happened-
I was trying to convince them to share their story by themselves but they have told me they would agree to all of these being shared only if somebody acted as the middle man since the events have became a big source of shame to them for allowing themselves to be subjected to this kind of behavior, and also they want to forever distance themselves from these people and lot let it stain their future endeavors.
Please note that not all of the events that will be recounted have records of them happening, so take them with a side of salt. I will be only sharing what True OP as the artists have decided to share with me- More details might surface in the future, and I not be adding in any details since I don't have the right to do so, I will only be adding my personal comments.
The Background:Apparently, this "Tails Gets Trolled" was an amateur fancomic being uploaded on Deviantart in the 2010s by it's creator until it was abandoned and was brought back a few years ago and made into a "community" project that was getting self hosted on their site. If you were to go to their site, you will see they have written "HELP WANTED" in bright red letters. If you were to click on it, you will see this page:
While working on this post, I have checked whether it was still up. It was.
Important to keep in mind that the "official server" and "production server" of the project are separated and they only allow staff to enter into production server while the official one is fully public and open to everyone, but staff frequent both.
Clicking on the link that takes you you to production server does not mean that you are automatically accepted into the team, as they want proof that you can actually draw- And ask people that come there to create fully rendered pieces, sometimes multiple in the wanted style before they allow them into the team.
Tails Gets Trolled had a Patreon page that collects money from fans, and the supposed "payment" they write about is extremely frugal as on average they collect around only 200 USD a month, and since there are multiple artists, this means they aren't getting paid proportional to the work they do- Meaning they are volunteers that are getting tips here and there.
The creator of the comic no longer draws as often- Keeping it pretty minimal and saving themselves to only certain parts while they and the new co-creator expects coming artists to draw the pages based on the scrips they wrote and character sheets they provide and some direction here and there. I have been told that they were pretty non-specif about what they want out of their artists and pretty much accepted anything that looked decent so pages often lacked direction and artists were left on their own to decide what they wanted with the pages they have been tasked with finishing.
The work was getting separated into different parts of the process; someone doing the sketch, another one doing the linear, someone coloring and someone shading, similar to American comics but was not streamlined as parts were being handed to whoever was available and sometimes one artist did more than one part.
I have also been told that artists were leaving the project without a word left and right when T.Op was just joining, and T.Op was about to leave, so they always had a shortage of artists. Never a good sign.
And Here The Troubles Began:
The True OP had told me that they wanted to see people's views on the parts they did, so they have also started frequenting the official server and even interacted with "fans" there regularly.
They have told me that they once typed the Chinese word for thanks "Xie Xie" as "She She" as they didn't knew the proper pinyin for it at that time. One of the technical staff (which we will call "C") had stood in to correct them, and they have told the told staff the same thing, which the T.OP have told me was met with the C HAD SWITCHED TO USE THE USERNAME T.OP APPEARED IN THE CREDITS WITH right than and there, in the server where swearing and slurs were allowed. Very uncomfortable about the situation, the T.Op told me they have resorted to changing their username to avoid any trouble and allowing C to keep their own past username- which the C IMMEDIATELY CHANGED IT TO THE NEW ONE.
Accounting to their recounting, this continued for at last a week or two until the staff suddenly decided to go by their own user name again. But when T.Op had called attention to this past even in another hassle, told that C just said "What are you talking about I don't remember lol"
Sadly, we do not have screenshot of this event because they told me it was too bizarre for them to know how to react to.
Sir, A Second Rad Flag Had Appeared In This Workplace:
Apparently, people in there was really big fans of fucking around with ML in the official public server, including C, and whenever T.Op had tried bringing their disapproval of, it was treated like nagging and met with cynic acts of doubling down. Apparently Bing was big hit for them they consonantly spammed the channels with them. T.Op had said they have seriously tried confronting them by saying "As fans of an independent underground comic this should be the last thing you should be supporting." and other stuff, which was responded with C copying one of them and putting it in as a prompt into Bing and pinging it back at they direly as a slight, but than deleting it later.
I have learned that C was ready purge-happy whenever he did anything that themselves look bad- But this event was screenshot by T.Op and shared among their friends to vent about as it was a very clear act of aggression and today it was their only record of this specific event.
If Op's accounts are anything to go by; the TGT were extremely aggressive about defending ML against them, even tho they knew T.OP was taking time away from passion projects to help work on their comic. But nobody have bough up using ML in the actually comic itself once and made the artists draw like usual.
According to them, they were even called "Never felt the touch of a woman" for saying girls don't like ML, because, you know, a huge majority of artists and illustrators are woman. LIKE TRUE OP. I have been told that they were asking whether there was any girls in the server with ML generated images of teddy bears and cats or something.
From than on, outside of generally hiding their gender from both the staff and the fans, T.Op had started to imply they were a man to avoid their actually pretty reasonable behavior be interpreted as "woman hysteria" by the TGT people that never once see their side and seemed more random and unreasonable by the day.
Before we continue this absolute shit fest, I want to remind all artists that if you are getting treated even the %1 of this, you have to GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE IMMEDIATELY- No one who has gone to deep end like this will ever come back from there, as you will see.
All Work, No Fanfare, Little Time:
Despite all this T.Op had decided to stick to the project to show their dedication. Soon, they claimed the part of the story that was the direct continuation of the previous one they did before that.
The saddest part in all this for me was to learn that T.Op had taken a break from collage that year to work on self care and their craft as they felt years of education have ware them down- And their original plan was to complete the part by starting to work on it as soon as the finals ended, sometimes working on the sketches in the campus library and finishing it 1 or 2 months into the year.
It costed them 9 instead.
For the mentioned part they have claimed, T.Op was being asked to make it in the fucking style of Boondocks, even tho no other part of it was made that way. And being the stupidly perfectionist they are, decided to make it a show of skill and make all part of the process perfect. (I am sorry T, after reading all this and seeing how you dragged you feet even tho people there were literally spiting on you face, I am fully convinced you are an idiot for this)
However, TGT fans were spoiled with 1 page every 3 days- And let me tell you, you can't humanly make a full comic page emulating Boondocks' style as much as you skills allowed you to in 3 days. So the releases of the pages had to be constantly pushed back while T.Op worked day and night for them and made finishing that part as soon as possible so they could enjoy the rest of the year their number one priority. True states that this instance on the Boondocks art style actually had no contribution to the story in anyway and was simply being asked by the creators only because "It would be cool".
They told me they had burned out at some point and had to took a one week break with the blessings of the staff and went to go wind down by doing anything else, which they completed a full illustration piece in that time. When they came back from them, absolutely no progress was done on the part. So of course, this made T.Op feel even more responsible for the release of the part. Other artists were trying to help to the best of their abilities but commitment to the style required T.Op do tons of clean ups and staff never once stepped into tell them they can knock it down a bit. They told me one of the artists had done the line art of a page that was already had that completed out of mismanagement, and after that, the said artist also needed to take a break, understandably.
But the pages were being released to absolute no fanfare, and the general "fan" reaction was to either ignore the pages or ask for characters involved to be killed off so they never had to read such a boring part again, even tho it was the part of flash back arc that was the emotional build up for important future events, I was told. When 3rd or 4th page was out "fans" were saying they were gonna close the new page notifications. T.Op had tried talking to the co-creator, who was more active and more involved than the actual creator and suggesting they skipped the part if readers wanted it gone so much, which they responded with "I can't control them-" and doing nothing to deescalate the situation as T.Op had to keep working the same way.
Tho, there is something I need to criticize T.Op for- And it's that they have tried to put Glaze on one of the pages from the previous part without letting the staff know or getting their okay first thinking they could get away with it during the V.1 days. Which something you ABSOLUTELY should not do if you are doing something for somebody else. Not cool T.Op. Apparently, they admitted to it, acknowledged and apologize and all the future pages were put out without it (I have been told)
Apparently C had tried making a deal out of it in the public server by suddenly dropping the fact that T tried Glazing a page without their knowledge in front of everyone at a random time a while after that, probably to cause further damage to their reputation which nothing came out off. Which is when "You took my username" and "I don't remember lol" exchange came out of. But you set yourself up there T.Op, you set yourself up.
I have been told that this C guy was getting offended at True for putting a text outside of the speech bubble for voice effects and was trying to get the creators to choose the version with his re-edit of them putting it back in, so I think he had a deal with True non the less.
Class Traitor:
While all this was still going down, the other admin responsible for the technical work of running the site, which is not C, let's call him M.
Yeah, so apparently M had suggested he made a dramatization video for TGT to put it on Youtube; with voices stolen from actual voice actors using ML.
You can see where this is going.
So, T.Op was made the weirdo for actually stepping in and taking their time to explain to M, who has to be an grown ass adult, why stealing voices from actors and not only unconsensually impersonating them and also playing with their labor too was wrong, while other fans there was stepping into make fun of T.Op about this.
T.Op was feeling much confident in saving screenshots at this point, I was told.
Apparently, M had tried to defend it by claiming worker displacement was a normal occurrence, just like computers displacing "computers" when they actually just moved on to becoming the first programmers thanks to their build-in knowledge on how computing works. Duh.
Things seem to have calmed down until one of the "fans" walked into triple down on the "need" to copy voices and generally picking a quarrel with True. Because how dare someone defends against free performance from unknowing people for shits and giggles, right?!
I have seen the screen video of what happens for the next 45 minutes- Which is a lunatic trying to forward a bunch of random, unrelated subjective philosophical claims like "Nothing is special" and "Everything is art if I say so"- I am simply saving you a lot of head ache by not going thru most of it. But I have seen this style of arguing before, every claim pretty much boils down to "I don't care bro- Just let me do the dank shit". It is what it is, and I am disappointment in T.Op for falling for it because they felt like they have to be on the good side of these people when it is clear as day they do not value anyone and anything. Than they wonder why they don't feel excited or fulfilled for anything and try getting thru it using irony.
Wishing people to lose their jobs because god forbid, doing any performance art automatically makes you an bourgeois. Their words, not any ours. If you don't care about anything and nothing has value than why do you care about money and class difference bro?
Hubris Much?:
Surprise! There was not two Discord servers for TGT, there was 3! The reason I didn't felt the need to mention it until now was because there was literally nothing happening there and was pretty much abandoned.
It was the production server for TGT The Animated Adaption- Which work for never once started, but animators were invited and waiting indefinitely and were given nothing to do in the main time, and nothing about the status of that project was clear.
From the way that I am telling you this you should be able to figure T.Op was in there to as they are a multidisciplinary artist. But keep in mind that most of the animators on hold where not carry overs form the original art team.
Looks like T.Op was not the only one that had problems with C, or more like, C had problems with.
So, one day, one of the artists had got bored with waiting without any reason and called C out for getting them there but doing nothing with them and making them just wait- Which C had responded with dismissing the responsibility all together and acting like everyone get there by themselves. Unfortunately, looks like True had chosen that exact moment to ask how faithful the adaptation was going to be.
Whatever the answer was, when they logged on the next day C was so shift while deleting all signs of having a fight with one of the animators that he accidentally deleted T's question as well, and decided he could recover it by writing it like a dialogue in a script;
WW: Like this! Get it?
If it was you, after seeing also this, trust with C to dictate what you had said or not said? Of course not! This is exactly whey I decided to call this C guy as "purge-happy".
T.Op have asked them to delete that too, and than left the animation server.
C, of course, had decided he needed to confound True for this slight against him immediately.
True OP explained these by saying they choose deescalation on purpose, knowing C definitely has an ego by than. But as soon you will see, when dealing with obsessive behavior even choosing the highway may cost you. So this small exchange was rubbed under the rug.
The Mask Slips:
Apparently, T.Op was banned off the Official Server, decided by a dice roll. But not the production one as if they still expected them to keep working (Which they were)
I swear to fucking God.
Allow we to explain: So apparently, the official server had a semi-joke rule that said anyone that posted on "Politics" channel will get a ban from the server and was somewhat enforced as way to stop anyone from making things too political. But one day True was logged in, they have seen that someone in the server have spent a lot of time talking about Japan, the emperor and racism. The odd coincidence was that night was the election day in the country they were in, and they wanted to talk a bit about the surprise victory. And the mod had told them they will not get banned off immediately since they were a "translator" (Which they also were, but apparently it came before them literally being an artists for the thing they were there for) they would get a dice roll every time they typed a sentence and if they got 3 lows they would be banned off.
Taking the bait (Sorry T, you weren't testing how seriousness there were, it was a bait because at that point they have decided you were too much trouble for your worth to them, and you took it.), they managed to only get 3 sentences out before getting banned as they none of the rolls were higher than 3.
Like I said, True was never banned of the production server as if they still expected they to work nothing happened. But in the main time, let be honest, fuckers were absolutely using the excuse to make fun of True and insult as much as they can. Which they were- True also knew this. They would also wipe the conversation that encourage them to talk that night.
Here is where we will introduce someone new: True's brother.
So, T.Op asks their brother to use their old unused alt to go look for how bad it was. Knowing how they were implying they were a boy, to complete the gender swap, told him to say he was their "sister".
The results:
Anyway, so, True's "sister" was one of the people that True was complaining about the TGT people's open stupidity, so he already knew what exactly was their track record was, but kept on watching.
In the main time, T.Op had tried facing up C and telling they "will no longer working with people that though so little of them", showing the shit he said about himself when T was not there in the server, which he admitted absolutely no fault over and responded with; "Than don't."
The right next day, these very people, wonderful people, very considerate people have the audacity to cry about it when the coming page did not came out on time. Unable to contain himself, T's "Sister" had spilled the beans and told them "One of the artists quit, lol."
Which oddly put them in a mood to quiz T's "Sister" about how they knew it. Which having nothing to lose, T's "Sister" admitted to the connection and send the same video they took these screenshots from as the reason- Which they would respond with instead questioning why the cursors where the same between videos, and doubling down as a show of shamelessness.
The rest can only be explained as continuation Olympic doubling down and deflecting the blame the most petty way possible.
T than has to go ask the same mod that banned them over a dice rolls to get in back and clear what they believed vs. what their "sister" had told them in final act of grace before leaving the server in their own terms.
Only after T.Op had left that C pings their last message that worked as a goodbye and apologizes for show, even tho he should have know they are no longer there to see it, since the server had a bot that announced departures.
After things were almost quieting down, C would constantly ping anything T's "Sister" says whether it is about the issue or not, and asking "Why aren't you letting go? Why are you still bringing it up" and T's "Sister" saying "I already did"- would not make him stop. C would constantly say stuff like "You two" in huge "s to imply he believed they were the same person and dangling mandatory "No Hostility" rule over T's "Sister's" head as a threat if they didn't "quit it". And than go beyond even that and saying that he and T had made up "in private 🙄" showing this as proof:, completely ignoring the "Than don't" thing.
I have told you this was gonna come up again.
This being obviously in opposition with what T had told their brother what happened with with C, T's brother goes and wakes up T.Op, and asks whether C had ever made up to them, which they obviously didn't. Than being late at night and both of them getting sleepy, T just tells his brother to ask C to show the rest of conversation. Than understanding there is no getting thru the thick skulls of these people and it getting even more late, they both go to sleep right afterwards.
When they woke up, they both see that they have been moth banned from the official public server even tho T was no longer it. Rightfully pissed, T.Op goes to face C once again in private, thus this massage:
It always comes full circle, right?
The Afterparty:
This actually being an open proof of C's open disrespect towards T, True Op would take this to the co-creator and complains. If this was have they are gonna do it they ask the co-creator to remove all of their credits off the Tails Gets Trolled.
His response would be that T's Sister must have been a hidden narcissists, and he knows where he sees one as his brother was also one, and T's "Sister" must have been getting advantage of T's frustration about people there and have made C a target for whatever reason and T should looking into studying signs of narcissism, that simply didn't cared about ML, than he also blocks them. Apparently said "I know C isn't clean of fault" but apparently did nothing about him.
Yeah bro, "Can't control the fans" but surely you got this one.
But they do not remove them from production server as they expect him to come back and work again or assuming they would leave on their own. They would quickly complete the part without their involvement to be done with it, proving they have been leaving it all up to flow and simply not managing the skill.
True have swore to never do anything for them ever. They never once heard back from anyone associated as if they have never contributed to the project for what can only be called pennies. They have since moved on the healthier communities where behavior like this won't fly under any condition. Be like them, move on and find better places.
I would also add screenshots of them still shit talking True behind their back- But at this point I think we all all got the point.
PEWWWWWWWWWWWW. Long one!
My Comments On The Situation Before As We Wrap Up:
- It is SO fucked.
- These people are so entitled, they probably have gotten used to and spoiled by free artists coming, paying astronomically lower than what they would cost on the virtue it's saing a community project on the can, and than burning them out before leaving.
- They have only paid her 170 USD in total for almost a years worth of work. Criminal.
- Since there was no work contact signed, this makes everything True Op had worked on True Op's intellectual property- If it was me, I would straight up told them to wipe it all clean off their joke project they can't even run. I am not sure how legally bounding T telling them to keep them without credit in a spore of the moment act.
- I can't imagine the experiences of artists that had quit without saying a word since they were so "Purge Happy".
- Lmao, they don't even want ML in their webcomic as they obviously know that shit won't fly, they were all doing this for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Just out of hubris, maybe if there was any though being any of these.
- ABSOLUTELY, UNDER NO CONDITION agree to work under conditions like this. a project has to be either involve no money, had clear splits or should just pay a salary. "We pay you when we feel like it" is the obvious show of someone who is looking into extorting your skills.
- Good job, they alienated another artists for nothing while also complaining about never having enough.
- DO NOT WORK FOR THIS COMIC CALLED "TAILS GETS TROLLED".
- They should also remove the "Help wanted" sign off their site if this is how they will be treating people that work for them as a favor.
True Op's Words Before We Close It:
" Thanks for proving the every word of my "sister" right guys. It was a career suicide after all! Thank for showing that early before I wasted even more time on it."
*
Details of this post has been checked by True Op. They are liable for their own account of the events. I have not added nor removed anything they didn't wanted to be heard or seen without their knowledge. /
Thank you to everyone and anyone who bothered to read this shit show start to finish. Even writing them second hand had taken a toll on me. I know this shit was absolutely anger inducing.
If you like me to also write about your bad experiences working with people that misuse your talent feel free to reach out to me thru mod mail or direct massaging and I can also hear your story out and make more warnings about abusive employers- You are not alone, you don't deserve it, you are not unique for having it happen to you. It's never too late to speak up.